The widespread utilization of mirrors for advertising purposes is well known, with their visual illusions widening and heightening space and intensifying lighting. Mirrors provide a false sense of depth and provide a surface shine that is seen to complement contemporary interiors. Henceforth, commercial designers have exploited these visual characteristics and have employed mirrors and other reflective surfaces as a base upon which to paint slogans, logos, product container designs, and the like. Prior art known includes a patent to Borda, namely, U.S. Pat. No. 4,747,223, entitled Mirrored Communication System, which discloses a device for causing a plurality of images having different optical characteristics to appear through a continuous mirrored screen. Borda teaches a partially transparent mirrored screen extending continuously over a preselected area and containing a distribution of reflective material which varies in optical density to define regions of differing optical transmittance to light.
Multiple regions are selectively back-lighted to reveal two-dimensional or three-dimensional images embodied within media behind the screen. The densities of the regions are chosen so that the images are displayed clearly when the regions are back-lighted and disappear in the absence of backlighting, leaving the screen uniformly reflective of environmental light in an “off” condition. In a preferred embodiment of Borda, the reflective material includes a front layer of uniform optical density over the preselected area and a rear layer of non-uniform optical density. The front layer corresponds to the density required for the visibility of a first object or image-bearing sheet located behind one region of the mirror and the rear layer provides a different density for a sheet located behind another region.
Products of this type are offered commercially by Focus Technology Co., Ltd. under the name of MAGIC MIRROR.
The placement of a selectably illustrated image behind a one-way mirror is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,563 (1997) to Lane.
Previously known advertising mechanisms have also employed music or light effects to attract the consumers along with a graphical image of a product, which may be placed on the outside surface of the mirror. However, the product, as depicted in the graphic, is without any visual effects, so that the consumers can hardly be impressed by the product and consequently, the advertising effect is limited. An example thereof appears in WO 95/23401 to Werbe-Spiegel that teaches use of endless loop advertising behind a semi-reflecting mirror.
Other techniques for advertising have limited applications, mainly due to technology and cost factors, and, as a result, such advertising slogans, graphics, symbols, and the like, have been placed on the outside surface of the mirror. This surface placement tends to work against the illusion of depth that mirrors are otherwise able to create, although efforts have appeared in the art to use multiple mirrors to produce multiple images of the same product. See U.S. Pat. No. 2,132,475 (1938) to Holm.
Therefore, as may be seen, there exists a need in the art for a new age advertising mechanism that utilizes the visual dynamics offered by mirrors, along with the message, and which eliminates the recognized deficiencies of the prior art.